


Green eyes in a bunny hoodie, Silver Spirit in a Porcelain Beauty.

by SlySama



Series: Unfinished Works. [19]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 00:51:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14759481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlySama/pseuds/SlySama





	Green eyes in a bunny hoodie, Silver Spirit in a Porcelain Beauty.

The Green Eyed Boy with the Bunny Hoodie and the Silver Eyed Spirit.

 

**Harry Potter Defeats Voldemort!**

  
Yeah, of course. Not like it wasn’t fraught with casualties and he hadn’t watched as his home was destroyed or how people he knew fell or he hadn’t had to train like hell to do so. **Tsk**.

It had been two and half months since the Battle of Hogwarts; the Final Battle. The place was in complete disarray, in ruins and it was going to take them all considerable time to set the old castle right again; well, enough to be safe for returning and new students. They couldn’t very well shut down the school for a year or more simply to fix it.

It had been those two and half months since the Final Battle that Harry Potter had been missing. Completely gone without trace. No one knew where he was, how to find him or even if he were still alive somewhere. As far as anyone knew, he may have succumbed to his battle injuries; there had been many. However, what most people cared about, really, was that the Wizarding World was once again safe, and it was all thanks to the Chosen One. He defeated Voldemort, the Dark Wizard plaguing their world—whether he had only been 17 or that he was now missing, didn’t matter.

There were many, like Harry Potter’s friends, at least, that spent almost every-day between helping to mend Hogwarts, trying to find him. Unfortunately, with little to no success…Even Hermione Granger couldn’t figure the mystery out; SHOCKER.

But it wasn’t like Harry was very far away. He was just…In his own Manor, on the outskirts of London, under his own Fidelius; he wanted peace. He didn’t want any more fame, certainly not when he hadn’t wanted it to begin with—it had all been just heaped on him the moment he had entered the Wizarding World at 11, and then that prophecy had been pushed onto his shoulders to defeat a man that had been around far long than he. He really wanted to get away from it, so he had. All he wanted was peace and now he had it. It was a good thing that he was holed up in a hidden Manor on the **FAR** outskirts of London, because that night, when his clock struck midnight, the raven was getting a _**VERY**_ big surprise.

 ** CHAPTER I. **  
** Midnight arrives. **

The clock on the mahogany side table struck 12:00 am in glowing emerald numbers, the date and the year printed beneath it in small text. The tired raven sighed, brushing back his jet-black locks and closing those sore emerald eyes of his. He had been trying for some time to get just a little rest into his night; his eyes were that sore that he was beginning to develop a splitting headache. There was a steady thump, thump against the back of his eye socket; It was snowing outside and had been for the better part of the last two hours; more than likely there was a blizzard having set into the mountain range his Manor was built, as the wind and the snow pelted steadfastly against his window pane, rattling loudly continuously it made that so wanted sleep evade him.

It was only July but who was he to tell the season witch that.

He sighed heavily, rubbing at his temples. He’d not been able to fall asleep for so very long for fear he would see the nightmares instead of the pleasant dreams he wished for, and they were nightmares, he knew this; they had been nightmares since the war had begun, and since it had ended they had only gotten worse. He didn’t **WANT** to see those but for his mind and his body’s sake he needed to find that sleep—if only he had dreamless sleep in his house, if only he didn’t think he would become addicted to the substance if he had it in his house.

His body shivered suddenly as a whoosh of cold air sank into his blankets and raced up his spine. Damn, why did it have to be so cold? He snuggled himself further into his many blankets and comforters that were spelled with warming charms repeatedly. He sank so far beneath them that only the very tips of his dark messy hair and the ear tips of his bunny hoodie could be seen above them.  
Yes. Yes he did own a rabbit hoodie, so what?! Just because he was almost 18 didn’t mean that he wasn’t allowed to possess something so very…Adorable. It was bloody freezing for Merlin’s Sake; he’ll wear whatever the bloody hell he wants to wear.

■□■□■□

The beautiful white snow, that he adored so much, because it was such a pure white unmarred beneath his crunching feet was beginning to get on his nerves the harder it became to trudge through the thick blanket that lay on the mountainous July leaves.  
He couldn’t waste time like this, he needed to get somewhere safe before this abominable blizzard got any worse, but at least, with the way it was now…They’d lost sight of him.

He was loathe to breathe out a sigh of relief, as unfortunately that went both ways. He no longer knew where they were… Taking a few deeper steps, north, he hoped, he stumbled, breathing heavily, hand over his heart as he suddenly lost all breath, leaning with his other hand against a tree, he kept himself standing. He was surprised he **WAS** still standing, what with some of the injuries he had. ‘Oi! There! There’s something hunched over, over there!!’ Draco’s head shot up like a bullet from a gun barrel, cursing as he spotted dark shadows running towards him. Shooting to his feet, he ran as hard as he could through the thickening snow; they were hot on his heels again. His breathing was ragged. Trying not to turn his head in search for them in this storm, he hoped they weren’t right on top of him. He gulped and trudged faster.

His feet were dragging in the snow as something abruptly tugged on his body and he fell, falling strangely onto warmer snow. His mouth had been opened in a scream, but he frowned, rubbing the back of his head after whacking it against something hard. He slowly stood to his feet, praying that he would not actually turn around and find they were all standing there, surrounding him and the heat was from their malice. But when he turned, he found himself pleasantly surprised not to find himself targeted by wands, staffs, arrows, swords, daggers, teeth, guns or claws; He was in someone’s front yard.

He blinked several times in complete and utter delighted bafflement and then he froze, hearing a door slowly creaking open on its cold tightened hinges; nothing came out. He gulped. “Please don’t let this be one of their secret bases.” His hands clenched at his sides, into his warn trousers, praying that this was not the case as he waited without breathing.

‘Where did that brat go?!’ The white-haired male spun around as he heard the voice shout, eyes widening to an owl’s as right there, just a few paces away, he could see them; they were trudging now, around the spot where they had obviously last seen him. He stood there, stiff as a post and completely forgot to breathe.

‘Hurry up. I assume you don’t want them to find you? Get in the house and stay there. Don’t touch anything. I need to strengthen my wards now that you’ve fallen through them’ He blinked, eyes still riveted to the shadows in the white darkness, as he heard the angry and yet intrigued voice. ‘I said **HURRY UP**!!’ He jumped as he heard the voice yell and spun, gasping in breaths as he ran into the house and the door slammed itself closed behind him. He could hear the angry muttering of the man’s strengthening incantations as he sat himself down heavily on the bottom marbled step of a staircase, panting, his uninjured hand pushing at his chest; his heart rate was fast, and it hurt to breathe. It just kept getting worse…

The door slammed again, and he jumped. He hadn’t even been aware it had reopened. ‘I don’t even understand **HOW** you could have even **ACCIDENTLY** fallen through my wards.’ The man shook his head, eyes closing and hands pulling the black eared hoodie from his messy black hair. The blonde’s eyes widened frantically. Harry’s narrowed as they met the silver. ‘ **HOW** and **WHY** are you being chased in the mountains?’

He swallowed. “I really should have thought this through more before entering some stranger’s house, just because he yelled at me. Shit. I really should have recognized that voice. I’m hardly going to be safe here, in **POTTER’S** house.” He breathed in and out sharply and then seemed to realize something, and snorted before he could stop it. ‘Are you wearing a bunny hoodie?’

Harry glared, his emerald eyes dark. ‘Yes.’

He blinked, then nodded slowly. ‘Oh. Okay then…It, suits you; it’s cute.’ He coughed awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably on the marble beneath his ass.

Harry lifted an eyebrow at him strangely. ‘Mmhm. Are you going to tell me why you were being chased in that bizarre blizzard, by those men, Malfoy, or aren’t you?’

‘…Why do you care?’ He shot back.

‘I didn’t kick you straight out, did I?’ Not that he had known who it had been until he’d glimpsed the white hair under the moons shine and seen those silver eyes almost glow in fear.

Biting at his lip, Draco shook his head, slowly. ‘That’s…A little odd, in itself actually.’

Harry sighed annoyedly. ‘Malfoy.’

Closing his eyes for a moment, Draco just sat there, trying to breathe, trying not to let the hisses of his second inhale and exhales reach Potter’s cold red-tipped ears. It really was becoming harder and harder to breathe, with Potter’s intense stare, the anxiety and well, the concentration he should have had to say something more to Potter.  He didn’t think Potter could see him doing it, but he felt better making the movement as he spoke, staring down at his own legs. ‘Uncaptured ones.’ There was silence. ‘Auror’s are so incompetent, and you wanted to be one.’ He sneered.

He heard a snort. ‘True enough and I discovered my talents lie elsewhere.’ The raven head lifted slowly, two high spots of color on his cheeks. He was still shaking from exhaustion. He waved Draco on as he let out a breath.

Draco mimicked the action, opening his mouth only to pause as he realized he wasn’t sure what else Potter wanted to hear from him and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. He met the green eyes. ‘What do you want to know?’ his words were breathless. 

Potter narrowed his eyes and took the four steps to stand infront of him then crouched so he could see properly, since he was sitting on the step now. Potter's  green eyes raked over Draco's body and the more he looked the more the green took on a worried gleam.

□■□■□■

Harry bit his lip. 'Tal!' 

**POP!**

'Yes Sir?'

He bit his lip again, debating which option would be better. 'Gather all the emergency kits, a bunch of towels and a bowl of warm water, please. Bring it to the guest room upstairs. You know the one.' The elf nodded and she was gone in a flash. 'Alright Malfoy, this might hurt a bit. Endure it.' Slowly Harry maneuvered around until he could gently lift the blonde into his arms, bridle, and take him upstairs. The blonde protested weakly all the way. 

□■□■□■

'Potter, put, me, down.' He glared petulantly. 

'Gladly.' Potter chuckled as he deposited him on silken silver sheets. He laughed further when Draco couldn't help the involuntary noise of surprise at the softness, let alone the rooms decor; it was very...'Potter, this is almost Slytherin!' His hands were rubbing the sheets beneath him without his consent. 

The raven was amused. 'Mmhm. I am very different than what you think. I have many secrets and not a lot of them my friends know of; including this Manor. Now hush, I need to cut these clothes off now, wet and as clung to you as they are...' He swished his wand intricately. Draco flinched as he felt the magic wash over him, he didn't trust Potter not to slice him open again. Frankly he didn't trust anyone anymore, especially not those that pointed their wands at him.

His eyes were squeezed tightly closed and it was only when he felt a hesitant poke against his cheek that Draco blinked open his eyes slowly, roaming down his body and watching as a slow and gentle hand cleaned his more serious wound with a warm cloth. He could see out of the corner of his Silver slitted eye, Potter's adams apple bob up and down as he saw the scar that hadn't quite healed completely from his sixth year; the year before; saw him quickly close his eyes shutteringly and breath calmly for a minute before going back to cleaning his more serious wounds.

'Potter.' He swallowed. That hadn't quite come out right. 'Potter.' Well...It could have come out better. 

'Mm?' 

'I uhm...Thanks.' He swallowed again; oh wow, that hurt. 

Potter shook his head, 'Don't.' His emerald eyes remained on the seeping wounds, unblinking even as tired as they appeared. 'You don't owe me a thanks but you do owe me an explanation, when you're all healed and well rested. Understood?' Draco jerkily moved his head in the affirmative. 

' _I suppose I do owe Potter that much...I was going to, I think. Earlier._ ' 

'Brace yourself, when I start casting it's going to hurt like hell. Grit your teeth.' Draco's silver eyes widened alarmingly, swallowed, bit the inside of his mouth sharply and nodded once, his eyes closing as Potter began to chant; the quiet incantating wasn't anything he'd heard before, it wasn't remotely in Latin, let alone English and certainly wasn't Parseltongue. He wasn't sure what language it is. 

As he lay trying to figure it out among the agony, he was suddenly wrapped up in an agonising scream of pure pain; it was as if someone was murdering him. 

It could be possible. It was Potter. 

□■□■□■

Harry flinched back as a scream grew in decibels as the spell focused on the man's insides. It surprised Harry that Malfoy was even still breathing in the first place, with how extensive and damaging the blonde's wounds were. He flinched again as claws scrambled across hs knees, tearing into the cloth of his jeans and through to the very skin beneath.  

He hissed back the pain, keeping his wand trained at Malfoy's bruised and battered body. Harry's eyes narrowed none the less; since when had Malfoy acquired claws? 

Those certainly hadn't been there earlier.

'Malfoy. Malfoy!!' 

An hour, it took an hour for Malfoy to be heaving in breaths and blinking the sweat from his eyes as Harry cleaned his face and body with a warm and clean cloth; finally, the man heard Harry's call to him. '...What?'

'Do you feel any better? Easier to breathe?' It took a minute but finally Malfoy looked to him and stopped the towels progress across his chest.

□■□■□■

'Yes; It's better. Not perfect but is it just after effects?'

Potter shook his head, 'I am glad to hear it but your lungs and ribs will never completely heal; you left it too long to have it healed...' He looked uncomfortable that he wasn't able to heal him completely.

'It's fine Potter; it's better than not breathing at all.' A bit of his former smirk gracing his bruised lips.

'Mm. I'll heal the rest of your wounds; not nearly the same amount of pain, but it's still bound to be a bit.' He got a grunt and began on the rest of the wounds and smearing salve onto the surface bruises. Draco clenched his hands tightly into the silk sheets, trying hard not to rip them in the process.

■□■□■□

"Alright. All done. You can rest now..." Harry breathed out, casting a senitising charm on his hands and stretching back and neck muscles that had gone sniff from just sitting in one spot, bent over for the better part of two hours. Looking up he snorted as he realised at some point during his healing, Malfoy had fallen fitfully alseep. The rise and fall of his chest, hitching every couple of breathes; there wasn't anything more he could do, they would never heal completely; as trained as he was in Medi Wizardry by Madam Pomphrey, he'd told him that. He just hoped that it didn't hinder him in the future, it could have some serious side-effects, one of which being running no longer was much of an option; if he ran to much or too fast, he would not be able to breathe.

Pulling the duvet from under Malfoy's feet, Harry placed it gently on his cooled healed skin and tucked him in; head tilted as he watched him breathe and shift in sleep. Quietly he left the room, returning to his next door and falling into the warmth and comfort of his large bed, eyes closing and hoping for sleep. If Malfoy had any problems or just woke up, the alarm that he set would; if he went to sleep at all; wake him up and he would run to check on him.

It had been a very long night, or he supposed a very long early morning. Frowning to himself that he would have to get some very good explainations without lies, he shook involintarily and snuggled deeper into the covers, once more deep enough that only the tips of his bunny eared jumper were peaking out above them. He exhaled comfortably and tried not to think.

Draco shifted fitfully in his sleep, wincing as he layed harder on the bruised side of his ribs; memories of his last days of his sixth year to the present situation surfacing against his will, his mind letting them in without a fight.

He never wanted to relive those; they were nightmares, worse even. He wimpered, one hand clenching in his sweaty hair, plastered to his forehead and the other clenching and ripping the silk sheets beside his stomach.

**

**Beeeeeez. Beeeeez.**

"Uh?" Harry sat up befuddled, rubbing the side of his numb face; surprise evident the more he woke up that he'd actually managed to fall asleep...For a while at least.

He frowned and looked around as he wondered where the odd noise was coming from, a minute passing and finally it seemed to click in his brain. "Shit." Jumping up and running across the cold wooden floor Harry slidded to a stop in front of the opened door of his guest bedroom; that was supposed to be occupied by a Malfoy.

He tilted his head, confused. Hand unconsciously clenching around the doorframe.

"Malfoy??"

A sudden coughing fit from the direction of the bathroom had Harry rushing to it's barely open door. He winced, a hissing noise escaping as he watched Malfoy cradle his head in his hands as he coughed into the toilet.

"Alright?"

" **Cough Cough.** " He shook his head with a moan, laying his sweatsoaked forehead on the porcelain heavily. He looked so weak, Harry's heart went out to him just sitting on the cold tiled floor moaning into the toilet. He bit his lip, unsure if he should move further into the room or not. He was getting concerned wether of not Malfoy was even coughing anything up or just dry heaving; even more concerned to know wether or not it was blood he was coughing up, if he was, it wasn't good.

"Malfoy..." He got a grunt.

"Are you actually coughing anything up??" Another grunt and a groan and Draco was lifting his head the barest minimum to take a look, he flinched back a little bit and put it back onto the toilet seat. Harry frowned at the gesture and the non-response.

"Malfoy?"

"...."

"Malfoy I need you to answer me." He let the barest hint of concern lace his words.

"...Yes, I am ..."

"Food? Flem? ...Blood?" He heard the quite swallow before he answered in a barely audible shaking voice. "...Blood." Eyes widening partially Harry rushed the remaining steps into the bathroom and kneeled beside Malfoy and the toilet bowl; a quick glimpse gave Harry the conformation he needed. He swallowed, pushing Malfoy back against the wall so he was leaning up and not down; able to take a proper look now, Harry groaned lowly; hands roaming gently over the bruised flesh. Malfoy winced everytime, even whimpered a few.

"Malfoy I need you to lye down and breathe slowly." He didn't move.

Harry's head slowly lifted from eyeing the bruised flesh to his shiny face and limp white hair.

"Now Malfoy." He growled. "That wasn't a suggestion."

Quickly moving to comply the angry green eyes Draco slid further down the wall so his head was just at the juncture of floor to wall. He eyed Potter worriedly. His stomach hurt and it was beginning to get harder to breathe again.

Harry rubbed his hands across his mouth and bit.  _'Fuck.'_ He closed his eyes for a minute, listening to the shallow hitched breathing of the man laying infront of him, legs either side his own folded ones. His own breathing shallowed as he took in all the sounds around him, narrowing down on the ones subtly escaping Malfoy. The magic swirling around him was less then bright and lively, it was almost fizzled out; just what the hell had happened to Malfoy anyway??

This was the first time he'd seen him since halfway through their sixth year. He swallowed and calmed his loudly beating heart as he tried not to imagine horrible inhumane situations with Malfoy as the star.  _'Calm Harry Calm, think think.'_  What was... !!

"Got it!" Quickly Harry moved like lightening across Draco's body, hands freezing and starting on his flesh, lips moving with little sound coming out except for the all to slight hiss and inhale of breath from his throat. Draco's eyes zipped around his own body as he watched Potter work as fast as lightening across his body; slowly his chest seemed less heavy and more easier to breathe.

Subtly the changes could be seen as he finished one spot and moved on to the next for the next half hour, never stopping to take in a large gulp of air or wipe his sweating brow; the whole experience was quite odd in Draco's point of view; watching as someone he'd known for seven years and mutually hated treating you with such speed that they were almost a blurr over your body wasn't exactly something he would have ever thought would transpire.  But apparently it did and it was. Potter didn't once open his eyes either as he worked on Draco's body.

It was odd to see Potter even looking worriedly at him or with concern; it almost made him angry before, like Potter was pitying him or something. But that's just who Potter was he supposed, he worried about everything and anybody, including his school rivial it seemed.

**

A huge airshattering sigh and Harry was pushing himself up against the wall opposite Draco. Hunching over his legs as he drew them up and shook for a minute or two. Draco remained quite as he breathed slowly again with the same little hitch as before and watched him, silver eyes slitted.

"...You wanted to know who those people were, didn't you?" It was quite but Harry still heard, his head moving jerkily on his knees in the affirmative.

 

 

 

 

‘I want to know why those Death Eaters were chasing you. I want to know everything that happened from the end out sixth year, Malfoy.’ _I want to know why you have claws whe_ _n you’re in distress_.' He stared subtly down at the tiles around the blonde where now sat deep gorges.

■□■□■□

Drawing in a slightly painful breath, Draco steeled himself and shifted further up against the silver painted wood-paneled wall. '....Oh Kay, sixth year...Let's see, uh, well...I take it you already know everything else because you said  **END** of Sixth Year...' The blonde swallowed and the raven nodded. 'Well, alright, I won't ask you  **HOW** you know but I'll take your word for it.' He took a breath again. 'Do you know all that Dumbledore fiasco?' The raven nodded silently. 'Oh, uh, where do I start then?' 

‘Hmm. When you left?’

'When I left? Fine. Sev--Snape, took me to some secluded cabin in the middle of a forest covered in snow. I suppose it was not dissimilar to here where it's having a blizzard in the middle of July...And after telling, no, demanding I stay put, he simply left. I assume he went back to the Dark Lord then went back to Hogwarts, considering He had some hairbrained plan to take it over. Snape never came back to cabin...Some protector, he turned out to be.  "Stay put, whilst I never come back." Yeah right, as if I was going to just stay there and starve.' Draco took a breath. 

'I became rather proficient at gathering from the surrounding forest. I suppose I gained a lesson during that time of my life; people aren't always to be trusted. I had no way of knowing what was going on with the War though. No way of knowing if I was really  safe where I was. I was...Afraid, day in, day out, I was still only 16, I'd never been just left in the forest before; I'm not an outdoors type of person if that wasn't obvious during Hogwarts.' 

He saw Potter nod and bring his lip up in complete agreement.  

'I was found sooner rather than later.' He sighed. 'They were not pleased when they found me, you could imagine how furious my father was when we returned to the Manor. They held a meeting that night, I saw it through the ajar doors of the grand ballroom, as my father was showing me his disapproval. I was heard and my father was asked to reprimand me publicly, in front of the man I greatly disrespected. It was a pretty loose term of reprimand; he was furious, the Dark Lord joyous. It isn't like I'm not used to punishments for disobedience...but this...was different, on a whole new level for my father.' He didn't know why he was saying this to Potter just because he asked, but it felt...good, to get it off his chest and somehow even better  **BECAUSE** it was Potter. 

‘Snape wasn’t there of course, at least, I don’t think he was. I would hope if he ever saw me there again, being publicly punished by my own father, that he would try and help but then, I suppose, I would have to see the reality and know that he would never have done that. He wouldn’t have thrown his cover away, simply for me; I was only his favorite student, I wasn’t anything else.’ He laughed derisively.

■□■□■□

Harry’s eyes widened even more than they had upon hearing that Malfoy’s father made a show of punishing him in front of Voldemort’s followers. ‘You knew about Snape?’

He nodded. ‘Yes. I didn’t find out until half through our sixth year though…’

‘Oh.’

‘Mm…Do you want me to continue?’

Harry nodded quickly, waving for him to continue.

■□■□■□  
  
‘Well, after their little show, my Father dragged me by my hair to their Lord’s disgusting feet. He was quite pleased with my Father’s treatment of his disobedient son. I, on the other hand, obviously not so pleased with the pain. My hair was further yanked on when I continued to look down in disgust instead of up at their precious leader. He hissed something into my face, but considering I don’t know parseltongue and it certainly didn’t sound like English, I have no idea what he said but I suppose I could probably take a wild guess and probably something pretty accurate and say that it was something like execution for any further disobedience. I actually blacked out a bit after that, I remember feeling a very dangerous aura wrapping around me, my body felt like it had become extremely heavy and then there was a searing pain as something raked across my body as if they had heated up knives and my body was butter.’ He shifted uncomfortably, trying not to look Potter in the eyes, having a strange urge to tell the raven that he had just left something crucial out of his explanation, but he wasn’t ready for anyone to know that yet, he wasn’t even sure what he knew.

‘Okay…Then what?’ He sounded like he already knew that he’d not been told something.

Draco shifted uncomfortably again, ‘Well, I didn’t disobey; I actually couldn’t. I was physically unable to disobey anything, and I remember something about a Battle, I assume that was the Final Battle. When I woke up, and I use that loosely, it was all over, at least I assume the war was finally done and dusted. I had no clue who had won, not until people were rushing past me, where I lay pretending to be dead and said they were thankful it was finally over and their side, the side Harry Potter was on had actually won.'

He took another breath, pushing a hand to his stomach for a moment. He didn’t miss Potter’s orbs following the action and his brow drawing inwards. ‘I remember feeling really relieved.’

‘I saw you…’

Draco blinked. ‘What?’ taken aback , it came out less articulate.

‘I saw you…For second, I hadn’t actually believed I did at the time but when you showed up here and before I fell asleep before, I was thinking. I must have then.’

‘…No one else recognized me, I wouldn’t be here otherwise.’ He frowned.

‘Mm…’ He hummed.

‘I was covered in blood.’

‘Right.’ He looked uncomfortably at Draco’s bruised body.

Draco’s eyes followed them, ‘Ah, some, not all though. Mostly, these are from the assholes that were chasing me through that blizzard of yours.’ He pointed.

■□■□■□

Harry frowned, ‘My blizzard?’

The blonde shrugged.

‘…And they were chasing you because?’ He pressed, frowning in bafflement.

‘I disobeyed in battle I suppose. Apparently, I killed quite a few of their own men.’ He shrugged, completely nonplussed about the whole thing, why did he care? He’d contributed to the right side and they won, it may not have been him that made a big dint but his conscious felt better that even despite being their puppet for the last year of his life, he had taken their own lives.

Harry blinked, ‘You aren’t concerned you killed people Malfoy?’

He opened his mouth and then closed it for a second, ‘Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled that they made me a murderer when I wasn’t one before. You know that, I didn’t have the heart for it. Dumbledore, right? But I can’t say that I had much of a choice in the matter and let’s face it, I probably wouldn’t have had much choice even if I hadn’t been turned into their puppet. I wasn’t the only one that had no choice in killing people Potter, didn’t you do that too?’

Harry nodded as he sighed in resignation, his head laying back on his knees, eyes staring off now into nothingness as he took a seat on a hallway armchair. The blonde jerked as he suddenly snorted, ‘That’s true enough I suppose, I apologize for the comment then. I’m a murderer too.’

‘Mm, well I’m sure you have some remorse for all those you killed, even if they weren’t followers of the Dark Lord. There were bound to be a lot that you know from school right, besides you’re a Gryffindor…’ He snorted himself.

Harry blinked, head coming up and staring at him funny. ‘What’s being a Gryffindor got to do with anything?’

The blonde shrugged. ‘Chivalry. Justice. You PERSONALLY wearyour heart on your sleeve.’

Harry’s eyebrows raised from his tilted head, green eyes suddenly glittering. ‘PERSONALLY, I’m not much of a Gryffindor at Heart.’

‘Oh?’

‘Oh.’ Harry laughed.

■□■□■□

Draco’s own white eyebrows rose inquiringly, waiting for any further explanation. The raven simply shook his head, not wanting to give him that information—Draco supposed, if the raven hadn’t given his own friends half of his secrets then he wasn’t about to give them to Draco.

‘Not yet, Malfoy. Earn your keep and explain the rest of your story please.’

‘It’s already 3 in the morning Potter.’

He snorted. ‘I know.’

He sighed. ‘Very well, well, when no one was in sight I got up and I ran. I simply ran as fast and as far as I could with the injuries I had sustained. It stung like hell, and burned but I apparated to the white forest with the cabin then I ran as far away from the cabin as I could when someone was already waiting there for me.  
I should have known. Of course, they would be angry that they had lost, that their Lord was no wear and that a mere 17-year-old had taken him down, again. I hid, I hid for so long for as long as I was physically able too. I ended up apparating to random locations, uncaring if I got myself splinched in the process—what were a few more wounds to the ones I already had festering. I didn’t really care anymore, I was already in so much pain and I didn’t want to be caught, tortured, or for fucks sake killed angry uncaptured minions.’  
The ravens lip twitched at the seventeen-year-old comment and then went to a worried frown when Draco talked about not caring if he splinched.  
Draco sat for a moment in the silence, trying to suppress the memories he was bringing forth.  
raf  
Harry watched him in the silence, blinking as his eyes began to sting. He hadn’t blinked in quite a while he realized. He looked away uncomfortably as he also realized that the blonde was crying and he probably wasn’t aware of this himself. The blonde even had hunched in on himself.  
‘Perhaps we should go back to the bathroom, it’ll be a lot more comfortable for you then the tiled floor and the paneled walls of the bathroom.’ He probably should have said that earlier, he laughed sheepishly as he stood and leaned down to pull the blonde to his own.  
He sniffled and seemed to frown as he finally noticed that his face wasn’t wet with sweat but with tears. He blinked quickly and quickly wiped them away before slowly stretching out his hand to get the aid to his feet. They walked swiftly into the bedroom, and Harry’s presence was ignored as he sat on the edge of the mattress, eyes on the blonde pushing himself backwards to sit stiffly against the headboard. He coughed.  
Harry coughed to fill the awkward silence. ‘Uh, can I?’ He asked, waving to the other side of the mattress. The blonde’s head only moved an inch in acceptance and seeing it Harry smiled and hurried to the other side, situating himself comfortably, making sure that he wasn’t sideways staring at the blonde as they talked. It would be less nerving and less awkward that way.  
‘Go on…’ he said.  
raf  
Another awkward coughing fit and Draco quietly started where he had left off. ‘I didn’t success very well, obviously. I was captured by them, that was my fault really since I was really tired, I hadn’t slept in so long and I…I made the mistake of going back to the one place that I’d already visited earlier that day.’ He growled. ‘They were tracking me Potter, even before the Battle. They were tracking me.’ He hissed. ‘They were playing with me Potter, they knew exactly where I was, where I had been, where I was going to be. They had just wanted to play with me, they wanted to play Cat and Mouse.’  
The raven could hear the disgust in his voice.  
‘They had finally decided to stop playing with me and to just take me, and they did. They caught me good. I was such an idiot!’ He smacked his head backwards and the raven jerked forward, a hand coming up in a halting frantic motion. He blinked. ‘I wanted to bang my head against a wall, but they did that for me of course. Well, my Father did that for me.’ He frowned suddenly. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t said anything about that…I would have thought there would be some sort of—’  
‘There was.’ There was no way he would miss something like that. ‘It wasn’t pretty but I did heal it. I healed it the same time as I healed your worst injuries. My wand was at your chest, my hand was up near your head Malfoy. It’s also why, please don’t smack your head again.’  
The blonde blinked, turning his head again.  
‘Oh. Wait! You can do wandless magic?!’ The raven nodded, head bowed. It wasn’t something he was completely proud of, and probably never would be. Draco tilted his head, trying to see why Potter’s face looked distressed. Why would you not be proud to perform wandless magic, there weren’t a lot of people that could do it, let alone simultaneously with their wand. ‘Why are you not…’ He started.  
The raven shook his head again and took a larger than normal breath, that it sighed out. ‘It’s another one of those secrets Malfoy. Continue your story. Please.’  
He blinked but shrugged, speaking slowly. ‘...Okay…’  
‘I was tortured, every day and every night…I’m ALMOST 90% sure. There may have been a few occasions where they would leave me alone to rest or something but most of those months were a complete blur to me.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m not surprised by that, I’m actually sort of glad that I can’t recall much of it. Having one’s own father torture them isn’t exactly something a child wants to ever experience, then again, I always had had that experience—it had just never been as bad as that before, my Mother usually interfered, as much as she was able.’ He started to sound sarcastic. ‘I don’t even recall how I escaped the other night, but somehow…I managed it, I also, for some reason, apparated here, like I’d been here before, I had this vague image in the back of my head. Which is odd…’ He frowned fiercely.  
raf  
Harry nodded, still feeling frustrated and annoyed that his wards had actually let him in. ‘That’s it? That’s the story? All of it?’ The blonde nodded, avoiding eye contact as Harry turned on the bed to face him. His emerald eyes narrowed searching for the lies and the hidden truths.  
The blonde swallowed.  
After moment he let the issue ago with a sigh, running his hands through his messy black hair. ‘Potter, I want to know what you meant earlier, and about your wandless magic.’  
‘…What, about my wandless magic?’ He eyed him unconcernedly from under his fringe.  
‘Why do you have that expression when you talk about it? You should be proud you can accomplish wandless magic, let alone that you can use your wand at the same time. Potter I could feel the power radiating from you earlier…’ He smiled sadly.  
‘You want to know why?’ The blonde nodded. ‘I don’t want it. I don’t want to be powerful Malfoy. I don’t want people to be afraid of me under all that smiling congratulatory façade. I defeated Voldemort with that wandless magic, Malfoy. I killed Death Eaters with that wandless magic, I killed people I thought were my friends with that wandless magic. Malfoy, when I get angry I scare people, I can’t control my magic. It goes wild. I don’t want it!’ He screamed. ‘I can’t control it with half of my emotions when they’re really strong. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore, I don’t want to hurt my friends! I don’t want to be thought of the next becoming of a new Dark Lord. I don’t want to be this powerful Malfoy. That. That is why.’ He hiccupped on the end of his words and pushed his face into his hands, his body now sitting on the edge of the bed, ready to flee to his own any second.  
‘Potter…’  
He shook his head, ‘Don’t. Just…Don’t.’  
The blonde sighed and pushed his white hair back out of his face, moving his head to rest hesitantly on Potter’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry.’ And he was, though the atmosphere was awkward.  
‘I said don’t. Just leave it.’ He shrugged off the hand and stood, smoothing down his baggy sleep pants and large rabbit hoodie. He sighed disheartened, ‘I think you should rest a little more, it is still pretty early in the morning.’ He took a few more steps before he was stopped by the blonde’s hand outstretched around his wrist, an unknown pleading look taking over his silver eyes. He made a noise in his throat. ‘You need to rest.’  
‘I don’t want to. I’m not tired…Potter, what did you mean when you said you weren’t Gryffindor at heart? What is that supposed to mean…’  
He sighed heatedly, ‘It means I wasn’t supposed to be in Gryffindor. I asked the hat to put me there.’  
‘What?’ He said incredulously. ‘You ASKED the hat to put you in Gryffindor.’  
Harry nodded, ‘Yes. I asked it too and it did. Granted it sounded pretty put out.’  
‘Then what house were you SUPPOSED to be in…’ He stared worriedly.  
Harry turned completely in the grip, disentangling the fingers around his wrist and pulling Malfoy towards him, locking his arm the thin wrist. He leaned into the face, his eyes wide, a smirk forming on his face to see the expression that would surface; he practically purred, ‘Slytherin.’  
‘S…S…Slytherin?!’ Harry let go quickly and backed up at the shout. He laughed as he dodged the arms that tried to grab him and the pillow that flew towards his face when he spelled the blonde to the mattress wandlessly, and ran out of the room, yelling behind him. ‘Get some rest! Call Tal when you wake up and she’ll show you to where ever I am at the time!!’ Because he wasn’t about to go back to sleep.  
raf  
Draco just sat there, glued to the mattress, completely derailed and frazzled. ‘Slytherin. Potter’s an actual Snake in a Lion’s pelt. HOLY SHIT!!’ He yelled. He felt as though his whole life had just been completely flipped upside down and then thrown into one of those Muggle washing machine’s he’d read about. He could still hear Potter chuckling as he was waltzed down the stairs. The prat.  
He must have been highly amused.  
CHAPTER II.  
More secrets.  
The morning was barely starting, the yellow sun having only JUST risen from its slumber and light the sky with a light grey intermingled with light blue—the inevitable snow clouds that seemed to have struck Harry’s Manor grounds.  
Harry sat at the kitchen table, drinking his hot Earl Grey tea and reading the Quibbler—a much better magazine the crappy paper they dubbed The Daily Prophet; it was always would be. He was reading something interesting on what Luna, or her Father or someone not quite sane enough to be writing an article dubbed the “Spirit of Lucifer” and didn’t notice until the magazine was being ripped from his hands that someone else had risen from slumber and decided to breakfast early.  
‘Thanks for gluing me to the bed for an hour.’ He huffed, Harry only smiled, head tilted. ‘What are you reading?’ He sneered down at the odd magazine in his hands and threw it onto the other side of the kitchen table, picking up one of the crispy pieces of bacon that sat on Harry’s greasy plate.  
Harry glared and snatched the magazine back up, continuing to read and sip his tea. Ignoring Malfoy’s hands when they reached for another piece of his bacon.  
‘Do you plan to—’ The sound of owl wings had Draco’s words cutting themselves off and his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Harry snorted as he too looked up, stood and let the small little ball of feathers into the warmth; it was covered in snow.  
‘Relax Malfoy. It’s just Pig.’ He laughed, though he was confused why the owl was there.  
The blonde blinked. ‘It’s a what? Potter I think you still need glasses. That, is an owl.’ He pointed and started to sound like he was talking to a particularly dense human. ‘Though admittedly a pretty pipsqueak one.’  
Harry shook his head and rolled his eyes. ‘No. I don’t. I do realise it’s an Owl, Malfoy. His NAME is Pig—short for Pigwidgeon.’ He shrugged. ‘He’s Ron’s personal Owl.’  
‘Weasley has an Owl?’ He questioned.  
‘Yes.’  
‘He looks like a flying ball of fluff.’  
Harry burst out laughing and Malfoy looked at him oddly.  
‘I know. It’s funny how many times that has been said. Oddly enough, this doesn’t seem to be from Ron at all, not that he knows where this is, or any Owl’s should be getting in here.’ He stared at the letters as he took them from the huffing ball. ‘It seems someone’s using the poor thing as a Hogwarts Owl—it’s a long way from Hogwarts, here.’ He stared suspiciously at the little feathered puff and poked its stomach gently.  
‘I think I’ll go and strengthen my wards again, just in case. I don’t want anybody to find this place, especially those Death Eaters. They could still be wandering the mountain range.’  
raf  
Even though, least of all my friends was left unsaid, Draco still picked up on them. It was strange, how he could sense things differently about people now. ‘I’ll open these then?’ He questioned, holding up the two Hogwarts sealed envelopes that Potter had thrown to the marbled kitchen table—seemed marble was the running theme in this house— and handed a piece of bacon to the pecking little beast that now sat before his hand.  
The raven nodded as he left, the front door clothing behind him with a ‘SHIT, that’s freezing!’  
Using the butter-knife that sat waiting to be used, Draco slit the envelopes and removed them. He frowned at the Green Letters that spread across both parchments. He knew that writing.  
Former Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)  
Present Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall (Order of Merlin Third Class)  
Dear Mister Potter,  
Please note that in the recent circumstances that have surrounded your Seventh and Last Year of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we have taken it upon ourselves to except those of your year to return if they wish to finish their education.  
This will unofficially be dubbed: Eighth Year.  
Those of you wishing to return for this Eighth Year will have all the same privileges that come with being a Seventh Year, note that of course this group will be given their own Common room and Dormitory in a different part of the castle; a neutral group.  
Point-wise you unfortunately won’t be able to contribute as this is an Unofficial declaration and therefore you are no longer students on the register. However, you are to keep your houses and participate in all your classes; we would simply like you to focus on your studies and not things like Quidditch Cup and House Cup this year.  
As you have been recognised by the Ministry as a year over age, some of you two years over age for Hogwarts, you are permitted to visit Diagonally on weekends if you return before Curfew is to commence.  
Please study hard for your N.E.W.T’s.  
The new school year will of course begin on September First. The Hogwarts Express will leave King’s Cross Station, Platform Nine and Three quarters at Eleven O’clock, so please do not miss it, get yourself locked out of the gateway or drive a flying car into Hogwarts.  
Draco snickered. That last part had purely been for Potter. Who wrote the letters to the students again? He wondered.  
We hope you return,  
Yours Sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall  
Headmistress.  
And with thanks,  
Severus Snape  
Deputy.

So maybe this one was personally written by the Headmistress? It seemed quite personal. Draco scoffed at the letter and then gasped upon seeing the name beneath it; he hadn’t thought to see it anywhere but on a gravestone somewhere. He was still alive?!  
Shakily putting the letter down, he picked up the other with a swallow.  
Former Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)  
Present Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall (Order of Merlin Third Class)  
Dear Mister Malfoy,  
Please note that in the recent circumstances that have surrounded your Seventh and Last Year of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we have taken it upon ourselves to except those of your year to return if they wish to finish their education.  
This will unofficially be dubbed: Eighth Year.  
Those of you wishing to return for this Eighth Year will have all the same privileges that come with being a Seventh Year, note that of course this group will be given their own Common room and Dormitory in a different part of the castle; a neutral group.  
Point-wise you unfortunately won’t be able to contribute as this is an Unofficial declaration and therefore you are no longer students on the register. However, you are to keep your houses and participate in all your classes; we would simply like you to focus on your studies and not things like Quidditch Cup and House Cup this year.  
Most unfortunately, Mister Malfoy, under the eyes of the Ministry and those of us that have not seen you since your Sixth Year, you are a criminal and if you do decide to return for your last year, we hope you will abide by the conditions we have set.  
Upon your return, you are to be subjected to veritaserum with two Aurors and both Headmistress and Deputy in attendance. If we find that you have wronged the Aurors will take you the Ministry to await a trial and they will determine your fate, however if we find that you have been wronged and in fact are innocent you are to be allowed to attend if you wish but if you wish to spend the weekend at Hogsmeade you will have to be supervised.  
Unfortunately, Diagon Ally is banned.  
Study hard for all your N.E.W.T’s.  
The new school year will begin on September First. The Hogwarts Express will leave King’s Cross Station, Platform Nine and three quarters at Eleven O’clock.  
A list of all your required books and equipment is enclosed.  
Yours Sincerely,  
Severus Snape.  
Deputy Headmaster.  
And  
Minerva McGonagall.  
Headmistress.  
Shakily, hands gripping the sides of the letter in a tight grasp, crinkling the edges he re-read over the letter. If he were to return, he would be subjected to Veritaserum? So, if Snape was there and he was Deputy Headmaster then did that mean he had done the same thing? Had he had a trial? He had obviously been seen to be some sort of innocent. But what about him? He was the son of a Death Eater and…Did that make any difference if he was innocent?  
Was he innocent?  
By the time Potter came back into the kitchen, the Hogwarts letter and its list were crushed into his hands; the sides ripping and tearing around his claws.  
‘Malfoy?’  
Raf  
‘Malfoy?’  
He didn’t respond.  
‘Malfoy? Malfoy, are you okay? What are those letters?’ He picked up the smooth letter and read over the florescent green letters spread thereon. He re-read it several times before letting out a ragged breath and turning his head to Malfoy, as he sat heavily in the chair beside him. ‘You got one too, I take it?’ he asked. He nodded without a word. Harry nodded back and sighed again, running his hands through his hair. ‘What do you want to do? I expect your letter isn’t anything like mine…’ Wordlessly the blonde hand the crinkled parchment to him and he looked over it twice. He figured the other paper was the item list when he was finished reading.  
‘...Fair enough. What do you want to do?’  
The blonde shrugged awkwardly, then turned to him. ‘I don’t know… I’m a criminal Potter, even if I were to take Veritaserum, what would make them believe anything I say? Besides, I’m Lucius Malfoy’s son and heir.’ He sneered and snorted before Harry could form any words of comfort. ‘Disowned son.’  
‘Well…Make a choice. Take the chance and return to Hogwarts? You have a lot in your favour right now. Or stay here forever?’ He crossed his arms and eyed him.  
A moment later he was hitting his head very un-Malfoy like against the table top, his head angled to watch Harry as he quickly pushed the Quibbler beneath one bang to soften them—knowing he couldn’t stop the blonde from doing it. ‘I’ll go if you do.’  
Harry smirked. ‘I plan too.’  
The blonde frowned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. The only response Harry gave was to chuckle and poke his tongue before pulling his cold tea towards him and draining the rest in one gulp.  
Malfoy licked his lips.  
Raf  
The next couple of months were spent first celebrating Harry’s birthday with him baking his own cake and them sitting down in the library to eat it and play some exploding snap, drinking some varying bottles of alcohol. Harry locking himself away in his study where Draco would occasionally hear him muttering to himself behind the door, or to somehow—he wasn’t sure and half ignoring each other when they got on each other’s nerves; which admittedly wasn’t very hard to accomplish.  
But then, then it was finally September First.  
‘Malfoy hurry up!!’  
Draco cursed and attempted to both run and walk at the same time, from the bathroom, fixing his owl ordered new clothes, he almost went straight out of his bedroom without his trunk that he’d been given by Potter, coming from the attack apparently. He cursed, rushed back then tripped over the floor rug. ‘Fuck!’ He swore.  
‘Malfoy!!’  
‘I’m coming, I’m coming. Don’t go getting your wand in a knot!!’ He heard the laugh as he almost fell down the stairs, rushing. Harry raised an eyebrow as he finally fell down the last two steps. Draco glared, ‘Well come on, since you’re in such a rush.’ He sniffed, pushing open the door and holding it open mockingly for the master of the house.  
Harry chuckled again as he shook his head, waving his hand and watching as both trunks went zooming out into the frosted grounds and straight into the opened door of the silver Toyota supra 2dr Terminator that sat in the driveway.  
His eyes widened it was the first time he was seeing it.  
‘It’s called a C-a-r.’  
Raf  
He looked so amused as he strode to the car and opened the other side, sitting down sideways. He called across the vehicle. ‘Coming or not? We only have twenty minutes to get to King’s Cross Station, platform nine and three quarters AND onto the Hogwarts Express.’  
Shaking himself and running carefully to the already opened door he sat down, pulling the shut with finality on the biting chill Potter’s house brought them, eyes blinking as he looked at the interior of the car.  
‘Put that on.’ Potter pointed to the seatbelt beside him.  
He huffed. ‘This is beautiful!’ He sounded awed and Potter apparently couldn’t help laughing at him again as he buckled his own seatbelt and started up the engine. In a magically enhanced vehicle they were zooming down the snow-covered dirt roads of the mountain and into the uncovered roads of the city; into the parking lot of King’s cross where shrinking and pocketing the car they were basically running with their trunks in their hands to find a trolley and running through the station to the hidden gateway and onto the platform for the Express with 10 minutes to spare because they’d run.  
Heaving and cough, Draco leaned up against the brick wall.  
‘Shit. Malfoy are you okay? Can you breathe?’ The raven’s eyes took on that concerned tint again and Draco heaved a breath and breathed it out slowly.  
‘I’m fine.’ He sounded pained even to his own ears.  
‘Here, this might help.’ He pulled something odd from his pocket and pressed it to Draco’s lips. He frowned and stared awkwardly down at it.  
Raf  
Harry sighed, holding it to the soft lips. ‘It isn’t completely Muggle if that’s what your being hesitant about.’  
The blonde blinked upwards. ‘No, you’re shoving something to my mouth, Potter.’ His words were slightly muffled against the instrument still shoved there. Stubbornly as he tried to breathe.  
Harry rolled his eyes. ‘It’s called an Inhaler, it allows you to breathe easier. Muggles use this if they’re usually Asthmatic.’ He looked to the heavens when the blonde simply stared at him. ‘Never mind, look it just helps you breathe easier. I’ve spent weeks modifying it after getting the idea in one of library books. I went out and bought it at the Muggle Village nearby, it doesn’t matter. It will help you breathe easily, so please open your mouth.’  
Draco hesitantly did as he was told, however with a push of Harry’s finger on the top where a square button apparently rested, something was squirting into his mouth and had him coughing anyway; it burned.  
He glared and pushed the arm away, lungs still hurt and so he winced.  
‘You need to INHALE it, Malfoy, breathe it in when I push this button.’ He tapped said button then and put the medicine back at Draco’s lips. Patient, he waited, as Draco tried not to notice that many people had stopped to stare at the two of them in their coats and standing around. He opened his mouth hesitantly and as Harry pushed the button this time, trying not to laugh as Draco flailed, struggling as he breathed it in he patted with his other hand on the other’s shoulder. ‘That’s better. You’ll get better at it, though I hope you don’t need to use it all that often. It’s just for when you feel you might be having some serious trouble breathing.’ He leaned closer and tucked the medicine into his jacket pocket, nodding once.

‘Come on, we need to get on the train…’ Draco nodded quickly and they headed in the direction, the blonde ahead of the raven with his trunk in his own hand. Though he felt it was considerably lighter than it should have been and scowled as they gave their luggage to the porter and stepped into the train.  
An awkward silence descended here, standing in the middle of the hallway. Neither knew what they should do now or where they should be going, whether together or not. Shrugging, taking the plunge Harry grabbed the blonde’s arm and pulled him down to the Slytherin end of the train.  
Draco’s eyes widened, pulling him to a stop and causing him to turn around.  
‘Are you serious?’ He asked incredulously.  
Harry nodded determinately. ‘I’m not going back to Gryffindor…Draco.’ He frowned to himself as he said this but nodded none the less and headed for a compartment that he hoped didn’t actually contain anyone he still knew. Unfortunately. That was exactly what he found as he walked straight into a compartment and right into “Eighth Years” having a private conversation.  
The next thing he was wincing as a screech went rent through the small cramped space. ‘Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaco!!’ She was up and squeezing him to what looked like an inch of his life; he stood coughing and trying to pry her off as he wheezed. The other occupants now sat, fully alert as they noticed that Draco wasn’t the only one among them, and that other occupant was glaring fiercely at Pansy.  
‘Pan…Pans…Pansy!’ He finally shouted.  
‘What?’ She jumped, but she didn’t let go her tight hold of him.  
‘I can’t…I can…I can’t brea…’ Harry could actually HEAR him trying to breath. Harry growled. His eyes flashed as his fist clenched beside his side and SHE was being forcefully shoved against the far side of the compartment, against the window.  
She yelped, blinked, pouted, her eyes tearing then they narrowed as she realized that it hadn’t actually been Draco to do it. It had been, ‘Potter?’ she said incredulous.  
Draco breathed in gratefully, a hand resting on Harry’s shaking arm, who’s hand was clenched to what seemed painful degrees beside his trousers. ‘Thanks.’  
Harry shook his head, his eyes on the woman. ‘No thanks needed. That cow shouldn’t even have the right to be here, let alone squeeze the air out of you as she was.’ He hissed.  
Draco blinked. ‘What?’  
The emerald eyes burned with an angry fire of a curse just itching to spring forth from his secretive tongue. ‘Why are you here?’ He hissed.  
‘I think that’s our question. This is the Slytherin end of the train Potter.’ She hissed, smoothing down her skirt and shirt as she sneered at him, taking her seat back.  
‘Don’t you sneer at me, you little bitch!’ Draco’s eyes widened.  
‘Potter…’ It was quiet.  
‘Answer me!’ Harry shouted.  
‘I have every right to be here.’ She spat. ‘I got a Hogwarts letter.’ She poked her tongue out almost defiantly, against Potter’s obvious ire. Not exactly the best move she could have made.  
‘You. YOU got a Hogwarts letter.’ He scoffed.  
‘Yes Potter. A Hogwarts Letter. I have EVERY right to be here. I didn’t do anything wrong!!’ She suddenly shouted. ‘I did want anyone else would have done!! I was scared!!’ ‘What are you doing here? Didn’t you go missing, didn’t you run away from what you left behind?! Shouldn’t you be the one locked up in Azkaban, that’s where you think I should be, don’t you? You murdered people!! You slaughtered them!! You defeated the Dark Lord, you did that, with nothing but a fucking hand!! Aren’t you worried you’ll be exactly like him? That you’ll become another Dark Lord? You have all that power and you have no idea how to wield it!’ She flicked her hair back after shouting and turned from him with heaving breaths.  
If she had looked, if she hadn’t turned her back on him, she might have noticed the way he was now standing, how her words had struck a chord and what she shouldn’t have crossed. His eyes blazed, his hands clenched tightly by his sides drew blood and dripped to the thin carpet. His jaw clenched and unclenched, his breathing was shallow and heavy and his magic was thick beside Draco—practically recoiled into the opposite walled seat.  
He took one step forward and the compartment doors and windows shattered, and with the echoing cries and HOLY FUCKS from down the hallway it hadn’t just been this one. Their eyes widened, several people stuck their heads out and around, peeking into the scene.  
‘You…Bitch…’ Another step and his hand was coming down fast toward her suddenly upturned face, that was rapidly beginning to pale.  
He had no idea what came over him but he was across the compartment and between them and the hand was coming down on him instead. He winched and knew his body flew from the ground to smack straight through the shattered compartment doorframe to hit his head HARD against the wall of the hallway. He thought he heard something crack, but he couldn’t have been sure as he groaned and grabbed at his head, taking in deep uneven agonizing breaths.  
Raf  
Harry stood there blinking, a frowning beginning to cross his angry features as his head slowly went sideways, and his hand came down in clear confusion. ‘What…’ He took a breath and closed his eyes in agony and frustration. ‘Why, did you, do that?’  
Another groaned hitch of Draco’s breathing was his only answer.  
‘Oh for, FUCKS SAKE DRACO!’ He suddenly shouted, pushing his hand through his hair until it was standing on end and rushed to the blonde, kneeling down beside him and immediately pushing him back into the wall as he pushed his hands into the heaving stomach; the blonde winced.  
Raf  
Hissing Harry angled his angry eyes on Draco, who winced further at the clear reprimand and anger in those eyes. He swallowed. ‘I’m sorry…’  
‘Why the hell would you do that?!’ He shook his head, still angry. Draco was shrugging, he had no idea why he HAD done it. She did deserve the slap, he knew that. But he didn’t want Potter to do that, for, some, reason…Harry stared, completely unaware.  
More stares were boring down on them as they conversed without taunts and Harry Potter was touching him almost worriedly, and that he was spitting back into his face. Quite the shock for the Hogwarts student body. By the end of the train ride, everyone would know what had transpired on the Express between them; whatever that was to be.  
Hogwarts was fraught with rumors.  
Leaning over Harry shoved his hand into Draco’s pocket, pulling out the medicine he had placed there early under the odd gaze. ‘Take.’ He said, forceful. Shoving the end forcefully into Draco’s barely parted lips, which he frowned at as he eyed everyone around them; his cheeks started to tinge. ‘Malfoy.’ He hissed, looking annoyed.  
He didn’t want to annoy or anger Potter any further, especially not AT him. Licking his lips, he opened them a bit more so that the inhaler was comfortable just inside his mouth and waited for the raven to press his finger down to the button so he could inhale; he should probably do this himself but he could barely feel any of his body right now—he had no means to protest.

Push. Inhale. Cough. COUGH. He pushed the inhaler quickly away as he doubled over with pain and coughed again. ‘Fuck.’ Harry swore. ‘No, no, Malfoy, don’t hunch over alright, you’re going to make it worse!’ He pushed him quickly down and onto his back, uncaring of the stares that they were receiving he pushed up the shirt to the blonde’s chin. Several people gasped and he rolled his eyes, unsure of the reasons and simply placed his warm hands onto the hard skin and pushing gently inwards.  
He bit his tongue as Draco winced fiercely, moaned then coughed harder. Taking a deep breath and letting it out heavily, he closed his eyes, letting his breathing slow that he could hear the inner workings of the blonde’s body as only he could; Madam Pomfrey had said it was a kind of meditative state and she had only seen it in rare cases. He had thought he would ever hit a meditative state but, as it was only when he needed to help someone he supposed it made sense—to his personality. Unknown to him, his hands briefly started to glow.  
“Concentrate. Concentrate now Harry.”  
The next few minutes were quite tense, stressful as everyone watched as Harry Potter seemed to actually be healing his school nemesis Draco Malfoy—and with wandless magic. Several people came rushing down the Hallway of the train, two of them shouting his name.  
He frowned annoyedly and scrunched his eyes harder, blocking out anything that wasn’t Draco.  
‘Harry!!’  
‘Harry!!’  
He frowned further as Draco’s breathing seemed to worsen right after hearing the name. He pushed harder on the taunt abs, pushing deep in until he felt that hitch in breath and then let up, relieving the pressure and using his magic to lessen the fluid that was suddenly there when it shouldn’t be. He sat there for a while and then shuddered, eyes opening and narrowing on Draco’s upturned face as he sat up slowly.  
‘You uh…You’re still angry huh?’  
Harry didn’t respond but nodded, emerald eyes vivid.  
‘I said I was sorry.’ He breathed.  
‘You expect that to mean something? Malfoy you just did something incredibly stupid!’ He flailed around his arms and stared at him incredulously.  
The blonde groaned, coloring. ‘You were about to hit a girl!’  
‘What?’ He blinked. ‘So? She’s a Pansy. She doesn’t count.’  
He groaned again as he rubbed across his forehead, feeling like he wanted to rub the back of his head and try and get rid of the weird light buzzing that seemed to fade in and out. It felt like magic and he wondered if Potter was aware he was doing it. ‘No. She may not, to you. But she is still a woman and you were about to hit her. You’re Harry Potter.’  
Harry made a face.  
‘…You were just proving her point.’  
Harry reared back like he’d just been the one to get slapped. He’d known the raven would do that upon him saying those words. But he felt like they were the truth, he had a strong sense not to lie to the raven beauty. He put his head in his hands as the fade in and fade out of magic slowly receded and he saw the deflated and crushed look on the others face.  
‘Potter…’ He said.  
Harry shook his head, his teeth gnawing on his bottom lip. He stood, blinked a few times more than completely necessary, ‘I um…’ he shook his head and turned on his heel, walking even further down the Slytherin end of the train away from his friends.  
‘Potter!” He stood hurriedly, someone coming to his aid.  
Harry continued to walk away.  
‘Harry!’ He shouted.  
The man stopped mid-step, turned slowly and raised an eyebrow in query.  
‘I’m sorry. You know I don’t think any of that.’ Damn, he was really swallowing his pride here to keep Potter’s sanity and confidence in “stable”. He was really starting to sound like he even cared about Potter. Well…Fuck.  
Harry’s eyes were unusually bright and he swore under his breath, taking the few steps and falling sideways into the wall. The raven’s eyes widened and he was rushing forward. ‘You can’t breathe again, can you?’ He shook his head, blonde hair falling into his eyes. ‘Malfoy.’ He whined, almost resigned. Having put the inhale back in the blonde pocket, he grabbed for it and bringing it up and to the blonde’s lips and grabbed the blonde’s hand and pressed both of their fingers down on the button. ‘You might as well learn to use it.’  
Draco blinked, inhaled, coughed twice before inhaling another dose and sighing with his hand clenched in Harry’s inner shirt; his coat opened in the crowded heat.  
Harry’s friends looked on with mild mortification and curiosity. He ignored it.  
‘Come on.’ He said. ‘You need to lie down.’ Slowly he walked them to an unbroken compartment and sat down, he took the seat and placed Draco’s head into his lap. Being the first time, he had actually ever laid in another male’s lap, let alone that he was on Potter’s, his cheeks brightened—the fact that they weren’t alone either only made this worse.  
Why their friends minus Pansy had followed them, he had no idea.  
‘Um, Harry?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Why is Malfoy on your lap?’  
‘He needs to lie down and he can’t really do that with all the seat now occupied, can he?’ He said sarcastically toward the redheaded male across from them asking.  
‘…Suppose not. But why, what’s going on?’  
Draco snorted, eyes closed as Harry’s hand unconscious ran through his soft locks. It felt rather nice though he wouldn’t admit that aloud to anyone if they said something.  
‘I met Draco over the summer, he moved in with me…’  
‘…So because of that, you and Draco are now…Friends?’ Hermione’s smile was large but Harry wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Whether it was meaningful or if she were simply pretending that it was okay for him to be friends with a prat.  
They both nodded together, silently and Harry tried not to groan as Draco’s head shifted over the top of his cock. He may have been wearing trousers and boxer-briefs beneath those but they were both rather thin material and his penis could feel that quite well. It gave a little twitch as if to prove this and the blonde made a startled noise.  
Everyone frowned.  
Harry’s eyes shifted, not meeting anyone’s questioning gaze. ‘Can you move down a bit?’ he aimed this at Blaise who sat on the same seat, right next to him. The Italian nodded, though really the words were a feint for asking Draco, who complied by the smallest inch so it wasn’t obvious.  
‘Harry, why did you disappear for so long and not contact any of us, then just suddenly reappear and with Malfoy in tow?’ It was Hermione again.  
He shrugged, distracted.  
‘Harry. We’re your friends, you blocked us out…’  
‘And let Malfoy in…’ He heard the muttered words from Ron.  
‘Look, I’m sorry that you felt like I was blocking you out but I needed the space and it wasn’t like I had planned to see Malfoy whilst I was hiding, he was just near where I live. He didn’t want to live where he was, so we decided to put our differences aside and he moved in, I did this knowing he wasn’t a criminal any more than the rest of us were we actually counted as normal human beings in the Ministry’s eyes, not that it isn’t corrupt, no matter how many times they try to reform it over the years. The place I live is pretty big so you could avoid each other if you so choose, which is what we did most of the time anyway, so…’ He shrugged.  
There were several voice recognitions but not word worded response to this.  
The train ride after that, wasn’t exactly comfortable but it wasn’t completely unbearable either. The moment the train came to that screeching halt at Hogsmeade Station, he had to gently shake the blonde on his lap awake—at least enough that he was relatively stable on his feet as they walked to the carriages. The carriage ride wasn’t exactly comfortable either but again not completely unbearable. Draco had once again fallen asleep, lent up against Harry’s, his face smooshed into Harry’s neck and his drool beginning to drip underneath the collars of his coat and jacket, and drenching the curling ends of his hair.  
He shivered involuntarily, shifting as gently as he could to feel less uncomfortable. The blonde moaned, gripping his hands around Harry’s middle to try and keep him still and in one place as he tried to nap.  
‘You seem to be rather close to Draco, now, Potter.’  
‘Mm. Like I said, we put aside our differences, have too, when you live in the same place.’  
‘Right, of course, I suppose. Why do you keep saying “place”, it’s like you’re keeping it secret, what even from your friends?’ Theodore Nott narrowed his golden eyes in suspicion.  
Draco moaned into his neck, biting down hard which caused Harry to flinch and use ‘FUCK!’ as an expletive. It didn’t cause the blonde to wake. ‘I’m not keeping anything, not really, it’s just a place, does it have to have a name?’ he questioned.  
‘Because most “places” do, Potter. You know, like a Manor, or a House, a Cabin, a Hut, a Castle, a Cottage, a Villa, an Apartment, a Chateau, a Tent…Do you see where I’m going with this?’ he questioned back.  
Harry nodded in mockery. Resigned.  
‘Well?’ Blaise said.  
A deep hearted sigh, ‘A manor. It’s a Manor, are you happy?’  
‘You own a Manor Harry? Since when?’ Ron asked.  
Harry nodded. ‘Um, probably since I was born?’  
They blinked in confusion.  
‘It’s CALLED Potter Manor II.’  
‘Seriously, Potter Manor II?’ Blaise snorted.  
Harry narrowed his eyes before a mischievous look passed through his green orbs. ‘Oh, yes.’ He smoothly lied. His manor wasn’t a Potter estate, he wasn’t sure who it had belonged too but he knew that it was named Salador II. Well, no, that was wrong, he knew who it had belonged to now, but he hadn’t when he’d acquired after turning 17.  
He was sure even if he did tell them, they wouldn’t believe him anyway.  
The carriage abruptly came to a halt and they got out one by one, Harry and Draco were the last to come out as Harry to wake the blonde from his slumber; he disgusted wiped the drool from his shoulder and neck, wincing as his hand slid over the bite mark. He stared up at Draco’s obviously annoyed face at being woken up with one his own annoyed stares for being bitten and having undue pain because of it, but the other boy wasn’t staring annoyedly at nothing, and the expression was quickly changing, he was staring toward the Entrance of the Castle.  
He could quietly hear an awed “Severus’ from Draco’s lips and he tilted his head in surprise. He had thought Draco had known Snape was alright? It had been the on other male’s letter and he hadn’t said anything to the contrary.  
‘You didn’t know?’  
‘You didn’t tell me… How was I supposed to know? And I supposed I never asked because we were coming here anyway and I could see it for myself, asking just because pointless.’ He was distracted as he spoke to Harry, not even moving his eyes away from the man now staring at them from the top of the stairs.  
They walked closer and were stopped just before entering, barred the way by the Headmistress, her Deputy and two strangers that obviously had to be some kind of stupid Aurors. One of them had narrowed brown eyes whereas the other had a large grin on his face and his blue eyes sparked at Harry.  
He groaned inwardly. Yup, just another stupid Auror.  
‘Professor’s, is there something wrong?’ He thought he understood what was going on but they could have at least been more polite about it and stopped them inside rather than pulling them aside while everyone piled into the Entrance and then the Great Hall; out here, it was just plain rude as far as he was concerned.  
‘This doesn’t concern you Mister Potter, why don’t you head on in?’ She smiled politely but he stared at her, blinking almost owlishly like he didn’t understand.  
‘But, I think it does. I think I’m quite alright where I am.’ He proceeded to snort at both their morphing expressions and that of the two Aurors behind them.  
Draco snorted beside him, ‘You needn’t bother, Harry, they’ll probably just separate us anyway. After all, they want to interrogate me, not you.’ He pointed.  
The raven shrugged, ‘No, they won’t. They might want to interrogate you on principle of course but I believe I can be of help and hey, I have my own questions I’d like answered. By them, not you.’ He clarified. “Maybe a little from you.” The Headmistress paled a shade or two, two red spots on her cheeks becoming visible under the dim lights. He cared less. ‘Well? Are you going to TAKE us inside or do you plan to make us stand here and let the rest of Hogwarts know exactly what you think of Mister Malfoy?’ He sneered the words and watched as several people, including the people before him recoiled, shocked.  
‘That is no way to talk to your Headmistress and Head of House Potter.’ Snape glared.  
Harry shrugged unconcerned, ‘Well, it’s not way to treat a human.’ He waved. ‘You could have let us walk in first, then taken us aside whilst everyone was busy filing in but you didn’t do that, you had to be rude and block our path right at the entrance; how long have you even been standing here, with them?’ He pointed. ‘Waiting to take Mister Malfoy for interrogation that no one else has any right to know about?’ ‘So really, on that, why should I be polite to you?’ He lifted a shoulder and shook his head as he stared between them.  
Snape’s jaw seemed to have unhinged and took a menacing step forward. Harry stood right where he was, completely daring Snape to try, an eyebrow rose. ‘Something to say Professor?’ You could almost feel the magic crackling in the entrance hall and feel the foundation of Hogwarts shake in acknowledgement of his power.  
The man clenched his jaw, swirled on his heels and barked, ‘Well?!’ and they headed further into the castle, to whatever isolated room they were going to bombard Draco in. Harry was smirking the entire way there—this was highly entertaining.  
Upon reaching an isolated room on the fourth floor, Draco seemed to realize and confusedly asked why they simply weren’t going to the Headmistress’ office. Since no one bothered to acknowledge the question, Harry answered for him in a whisper, close to his ears as they rounded a bend in the hallway. ‘They can’t open it.’  
His smile widened as he pushed Draco down into a chair as they entered a deserted and barely lit room; it sure was like an interrogation chamber—he had to wonder if it had, at one point, in fact been used as one among the Hogwarts Founders and any wayward students that were stubborn? He pulled up on next to the blonde. Draco stared and laughed suddenly, understanding what Harry was hinting—he wondered how he’d managed that what with Hogwarts being sentient and all; but maybe it had a soft spot for the raven?  
Everyone bar Harry stared at him aghast, like he was crazy.  
Harry laughed right alongside him as he spotted their expressions, looking equally insane.  
‘Are you two quite alright?’ The headmistress asked.  
‘Mm, yeah, we’re fine.’ Harry said, waving dismissively. ‘Inside joke.’  
‘Inside joke?’ Snape just stared at them like they were insane, but there was a calculating air around the stare, around the way he was stood, cross-armed and stiff backed.  
‘Shall we start Headmistress? So you can get to the sorting feast on time?’ One of the Aurors, Harry cared who neither was, stepped forward as a small green bottle was held out by Snape and waited for the affirmation. She nodded, quietly watching both boys. Thoughts were rampant inside her brain—exactly why was Harry was Potter in here too?  
What did he have to do with Malfoy?  
‘Very well, open up Mister Malfoy.’ The one that had taken the veritaserum came closer and tipped the three drops onto Draco’s held out tongue. He blinked a few times, Draco, then stared straight ahead as a weird blur was added to his vision.  
‘What’s your name?’  
‘Draco Lucius Malfoy.’ He sneered the last two names. The men frowned.  
‘When were you born?’  
‘April 5th, 1980.’  
‘That would make you now 18?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Your parents are Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Mister Malfoy where have you been since the—’ The man turned to McGonagall, she mouthed. ‘—End of your sixth year?’  
‘Here and there.’ He blinked and then men frowned before the one asking the questions harrumphed. ‘Were you with Death Eaters?’  
‘Yes and No.’ He blinked several times.  
‘What is this? Does he need more or something?’  
Snape shook his head. ‘Of course not.’  
“You’re just not asking the questions right.” Harry thought, rolling his eyes.  
‘Right. Why yes and no?’  
‘Because I was with Severus Snape but he isn’t a real Death Eater, then he left me on my own and then I was with real Death Eaters.’ He huffed.  
‘We know that.’  
Harry let out a frustrated sound, staring down at watch that sat on his left wrist. ‘Are you serious right now? I mean are you seriously fucking an interrogator? You haven’t asked him anything you don’t already know. At this rate no one is going to be going anywhere and no one is going to be sorted anyway tonight. The poor sorting hat won’t be able to sing, not that it would much of a tragedy if it didn’t.’  
Draco snickered.  
Harry smiled, eyes turning from him back to the Aurors who stood gaping at his manners. The man asking the questions frowned at him angrily; this wasn’t the way he knew The Harry Potter to be portrayed. ‘Are you really Harry Potter?’ he questioned.  
Now Harry did look at him like a complete idiot. ‘Yes.’ He enunciated carefully. ‘I am, you completely, and UTTER moron. I AM NOT the one being interrogated though, am I?’  
The man muttered something below his breath and Harry narrowed his eyes; he went back to attempting ask Malfoy questions. ‘How did you come to be with Death Eaters?’  
‘They captured me.’  
‘They captured you, from where?’  
He made a frustrated noise. ‘I don’t know. It’s a forest. It’s covered in snow. There’s a cabin there, set among the tall thick and black trees. That’s all I know.’  
‘Right. And why did they capture, why were you not with them?’  
‘They caught me because I didn’t stay in the cabin that Severus told me too.’ The man made a growling noise at this. ‘I went out occasionally to hunt for food, there wasn’t anything left after a few days spent in the cabin and he hadn’t given me any. What was I supposed to do? Starve to be set free? He was hiding me obviously, I wasn’t safe, I’d disobeyed, I was supposed to fulfill a mission and I didn’t. He did it instead, but he’d already been tasked that by Dumbledore, he was already doing what Dumbledore wanted; he said that.’ He pointed. ‘Before he left me there to fend for myself for however knows long?’  
‘When did they capture you?’  
‘I don’t know.’  
‘Where did they take you?’  
‘Malfoy Manor.’  
‘To your home?’  
‘Voldemort’s home.’ He spat.  
They blinked at the vehemence and the disgust and sadness in the two words.  
‘Was your Father there?’  
‘Yes, he’d been with them when they caught me.’  
‘Was he?’  
‘Yes.’ He spat.  
‘And what did he do when he brought you home?’  
‘Yelled at me for disobeying him, their Lord and…’ He clenched his teeth.  
‘And?’  
‘They were holding one of their little meetings. He made a show of punishing me for being disobeyed. The Dark Lord liked that.’  
‘How exactly did they find you, at the cabin?’  
‘I don’t know.’  
‘When you said made a show, what did you mean?’  
‘He publicly disciplined his disobedient son. He beat me. He threw insults at me.’ He shrugged.  
‘Your Father is abusive?’  
Draco snorted. ‘He’s a Death Eater. What do you expect him to do when his son disobeys him? Sit around staring at the walls and let his wife do the punishing? He served a lunatic for 17 years, anything I do that’s wrong I get punished for, and I keep getting punished for until he believes that I have understood the meaning of “don’t fuck up next time.”’ His breathing had turned shallow.  
The Auror frowned, ‘From what age did these beating commence?’  
Draco blinked a few times, remaining silent. The man turned toward Snape but he shook his head. ‘Five.’ He frowned at his owns words.  
‘Did you just say five?’ Draco nodded.  
‘Yes.’ He said verbally, since the truth serum made him verbalize.  
The man rubbed down his face tiredly, moving on. ‘Right, what did he do specifically, in this show of his—you said that He-Who-Must—’  
Harry huffed, interrupting. ‘It’s been practically five months, what you can’t say Voldemort?’  
The man flinched. ‘Since He, was there, what did your Father do?’  
“Great” Draco sat there, his jaw clenched tight for a full minute, his breathing rapidly coming with his frustrated grunts. Harry frowned now too, this was something that had been bugging him about Malfoy’s story. The blonde had told him all the facts, he was sure of that. There was obviously something he was unwilling to share but with veritaserum, it didn’t leave him with any choice. His mouth opened jerkily as if of its own accord and ‘He did exactly that, he made a show of beating me to a pulp in front of his Lord and then did what he always does.’ He tried to be as vague as possible, his jaw still painfully clenched.  
‘Which is?’ The Auror pressed.  
He chewed his inner-cheek hard until it bled. He really didn’t want this to slip out. He didn’t want anyone to know this. It was disgusting, it was immoral it was completely something his insane Father would to his only son and heir.  
He had nightmares. Always had. His mother hadn’t been able to stop this, no matter how hard she might have tried to do so, no matter how hard she tried to put herself before his Father.  
‘Please…’ He begged and buried his head in his hands. Harry stared, eyes going wide as he watched in some concern, rubbing the back in small circles he grew more concerned as he counted the hitches in the breathing.  
‘Draco calm down, you’re going to hyperventilating. That would bring you any good. Remember your breathing, yeah?’ The back jerked under his hand as he spoke and suddenly realized that blonde was in fact crying beneath those hands. His heart almost broke. ‘Draco…’ He rubbed the back in larger circles, trying to ease the man’s discomfort, let alone his own. It didn’t seem to be helping at all. He cursed, shoving his hand into Draco’s jacket pocket beneath the tables edge; he didn’t care what that looked like on the other side to Snape and McGonagall, or just McGonagall, since Snape was standing and could probably see the truth of it. He cursed again when he encountered empty space, shifting from his chair and rounded the blonde he shoved his hand into the other and spinning the chair, he sighed as he found it.  
‘Draco. Draco lift your head.’ The blonde did, his cheeks tinted pink even through the tear stains as his chest heaved and wheezed. McGonagall stood now, reaching for the Floo powder above a fireplace that Harry hadn’t been aware had been in the room earlier, probably to call the resident Medi Witch. Harry shook his head, ‘It’s fine, you don’t need to call Poppy.’  
‘Draco just breathe.’  
He was trying his hardest here, but he supposed he needed to try even harder before he could even think about placing his lips around the bottom end of the oddly shape instrument and inhaling the strange mist that squirted into his throat.  
‘Just a little more, okay?’ Harry encouraged, smiling as he mimicked calming breaths and Draco first scowled before laughing painfully and embarrassed, began copying Harry’s breaths.

 

When he was calm enough Harry put the inhaler to his lips and pushed the top button; inhaling Draco breathed out and inhaled again when Harry pushed down. Harry nodded, "Good. You're alright?" He nodded, his breathing still wasn't what Harry wanted at the moment, but it would have to do.  
"You need to try and stay calm okay, no matter what you have to say alright?" Draco nodded reluctantly. "I'll try." Harry nodded back and held the inhaler closely in his hand.  
"Potter why do you have that muggle inhaler and why did you just give it to Malfoy?" Harry turned his head to look infront of him at Snape. "Because he needs it. And it's not completely muggle; it just looks muggle. I made it, it's magical; works a hell of a lot better too."  
"Mmhm." He narrowed his eyes but looked at Draco and his calmer demenior and didn't say anything further.  
Another few drops of green liquid and the man once more asked the same question. Harry glared.  
A quickening of his breathing, taking a few deep breaths and he was ready to answer quietly. "What he always does is..." He rubbed his face, not quite as ready as he thought. A hand suddenly laid ontop of his own under the table and he jerked a little bit, hesitantly threading their fingers together. "He..." He closed his eyes, maybe it was better if he couldn't see everyone's faces. "He...Herapedme." He sorter just quickly mumbled through it, everyone frowned as they all quickly disifered his rushed words.  
"Did you just...He what?" Draco's eyes remained tightly screwed shut. He didn't want to see anyone's faces least of all Severus and Harry's. He heard both of their gasps though and that hurt.  
"Draco that's..." Snape couldn't seem to find more than those two words out of his whole vocabulary.  
Harry remained silent, eyes not looking at anyone. Draco's eyes opened slowly and eyed him as he still hadn't said anything. "Potter...?"  
Shaking himself out his own memories Harry smiled sadly at him, Draco narrowed the silver orbs and frowned at the shiny glossyness of Harry's green ones.  
'Have to find out what that was later...'  
"What did he do after?"  
"Dragged me by strans of my hair to his Lord's scaly feet, then yanked again so I'd look up to him." He shivered involunarily. "What's next?"  
He took a deep breath, "He was quite pleased with my Father's little show of how he treats his disobedient son, I on the hand not so much..." He sneezed suddenly and blinked several times, "He hissed something into my face, I'm not sure what it was because I don't speak Paseltongue. But it was probably something like 'Disobedience again deserves execution.' I uhm..." He avoided looking at Harry and tried to pull his hand away but he wouldn't let him. "He called something, he whistled and something flew into the room; the only lights left on in the room were the two wall lamps behind their Lord. I remember looking up frightened and seeing black horned wings above my head, claws coming around my body and seeing Him sit there with a malicious smile on his face, he licked whatever lips he thought he'd possessed too. Whatever it was behind me didn't pause to bow or lick it's Master's feet, it went right on to devour me."  
He took another deep breath, "What do you mean devour you? You're still alive aren't you?"  
Draco narrowed his eyes, yeah that wasn't actually something he knew. "I don't know..."  
"Whatever it was, it clawed into me and it felt like I was being wripped apart; I blacked out after a couple seconds of the first set of claws. When I came too...I was standing in the middle of the Battle field; the Final Battle. I was scared someone would recognise me, but that wasn't ever going to be a problem; I was covered in blood from head to toe, only half belonging to myself. Whatever bit me, when I was standing on that Battle field in the midst of complete carnage I didn't feel like myself, like something had taken over my body and massacared all those people. When I fully came back to myself, I didn't feel a heavy weight on my back, didn't see claws on my hands or hear the screams of far away people being slaughtered. I couldn't disobey before, I had no choice; I wasn't me. But I could now, and I did. I murdered their own." He blinked several times to clear a different type of blurriness and startled when a tissue was held against his cheek.  
"I blacked out again but this time, it was a normal black out; falling unconcious. When I woke up, I was laying in a part of Hogwarts grounds in the middle of dead Death Eater bodies. I kept quiet and pretended when I heard people heading my way, it was with their muttering that I knew the Light Side had won and I was glad for it. Maybe then I could be safe." He snorted derisively. "As if, right? I was never safe."  
The other man went to ask a further question but Draco opened his mouth; he was willing to tell them all this shit now, veritserum or not.  
"The Death Eaters that escaped were bound to be angry over the Defeat of their Dark Lord and the many of their own men that I killed. So they chased after me, and I didn't realise they were just playing a game with me until I made the mistake of going back to the same spot I had already been to earlier that same day. I'd apparated from place to place trying to stay hidden from them, I'd avoided the cabin and I didn't care where I went just so long as I was hidden, I didn't care if I splinched myself in the process; At that point I didn't really care. The pain was bareable. I was tired when I made that mistake; I hadn't slept in a long time. But I still made it and it almost cost me my life."  
"From the moment they caught me the first time, they'd continued to track my movements. They'd just wanted to play chase with their victim before they killed him." He still sounded disgusted with himself for falling for their cat and mouse tricks.  
The man with the veritserum opened his mouth again and quickly spoke to Professor Snape. "Is he still under the influence of veritserum, we haven't had to ask any questions?" Severus rolled his eyes at the stupidity, "He wants to tell you everything now; it's why you don't need to ask questions. Just listen to the truth."  
Both men nodded.  
"When I realised how much of a fool I'd been for falling straight into their little cat/mouse game I wanted to smack my head repeatedly against a wall, well of course they were happy to do that for me; more specifically Lucius, my Father. Or not, he disowned me."  
"After that I spent every waking and sleeping moment being tortured. I'm not 100% sure but there may have been one or two occasions where they wouldn't...My...Lucius was the head of torturing. Most of those two months after the Battle was a complete blurr to me. Though I'm not surprised, I'm glad I can't recall much of it. Having one's own Father torture you isn't exactly a pleasant experience; I envy those children with loving parents...It was never a pleasant experience and that one topped the proverbial blood soaked cake." He sounded sarcastic.  
"I really don't recall how I escaped that night but somehow I seemed to manage it. For an odd reason I ended up apparating to an unknown location on the outskirts of london in the beginnings of a blizzard, the reason it was odd though, was because even though an unknown location; I felt like I'd been there before. They tracked me all the way out there and I ran, they chased me through the freezing snow snorm. It was a while I was out there, I was suddenly finding myself being pulled inside a ward pretecting a Manor. His Manor." He blinked once and pointed to Harry.  
"He's lived under my roof since then; it's why we're so close now. We put our differences behind us. You should of seen the state he was in though, I was surpised he was still alive. But I'm glad I managed to heal him, though his lungs and ribs are never going to be the same again; it's why he needs the magical inhaler." He looked towards Snape as he said this, as if half accusing him of not taking better care of the one that cares about him enough to speak his first name and be cared about in turn enough to be allowed to say his first name.  
"What Potter? Why are you glaring at me?" He glared right back.  
"You care about him don't you? You should of tried harder to take care of him." Draco chocked on his own spit. "Harry!"  
"I do yes. Naturally. Being that I am his GodFather as well as his Head of House. But that's not enough to get me into his house after allegiences had been leaked, nor is it in anyway enough to know where he went after I told him not to leave the cabin. It's because he did that they found him in the first place."  
"GodFather?" Snape nodded arogantly. "Yes Potter. GodFather."  
Harry closed his eyes and opened his mouth, but Draco's hand quickly covered it. "Stop Harry. I do understand and I know it's my fault for leaving the cabin even if it was to not starve. Don't argue with him though, you need to get reasonably along if you want to switch houses." He gasped and bit his lip.  
Harry's eyebrows shot up, "Draco your under truth serum you should hardly be blurting out information like that. I'm glad my Manor is under my own Fidelus and forbids you to say anything other than Manor. Though I'm not 100% sure you even know the name of the Manor."  
Draco shook his head, he didn't. Though he had a feeling it was somewhere in the very back of his mind, there was something about that Manor that was so familiar to him, like he'd defintely been there before.  
"Mmm, I'll tell you later. But I suppose it's not much of a secret, I would of told them anyway. I plan to re-sort myself after the first years. This is my 'Eighth Year' of Hogwarts and I wanted to do it in my rightful house."  
"Rightful house Mister Potter?" He nodded, "Yes."  
"Which would be Potter, we haven't got all night."  
Smiling with a hint of a smirk, he spoke as matter afactly as he could without bursting into laughing upon seeing their shocked and bewildered expressions. "Slytherin."  
"What?!" Similtaniously.  
"The hat wanted to put me in Slytherin my first year, I asked it not too; so it put me into Gryffindor. A snake in lions clothing if you would. So...I will be re-sorting myself into the right house this year and I'm sure many will have some serious fainting fits but I'm sure the hat will just love to re-sort me properly." His smile reached quite far and it was mischievous.  
Snape's slack face was almost enough to make Harry and Draco burst out laughing.  
"Don't be obsurd Potter, you're a Gryffindor through and through." Harry raised his eyebrow in amusement, "Sorry Professor but the way I've been acting all 'Seventh Year' and the way I defeated Voldemort contradicts that quite alot. As well as the fact, the Hat's first choice for me was Slytherin."  
Snape scoffed and stood abruptly, "We'll see Potter."  
A moment later and they were all heading out of the room and back down to the Entrance Hall; the Aurors carrying various papers scratched with ink.  
"Well have a lovely day." With that they were off back to the Ministry to file their reports and the four other people headed into the Great Hall, making a hell of an Entrace as they all walked in together, Draco and Harry side by side; hands almost touching.  
A few people yelled out what was going on and why they were together. The first years sat infront of the Head Table nervously waiting to be sorted into their houses. Ron and Hermione ran up to them, trying to pull Harry back to the Gryffindor Table with them, he frowned and tugged his wrist away from their prying hands.  
Patting him on the arm, Draco angled his head at the Slytherin Table and headed in that direction at the subtle nod of Harry's own messy head. Walking after the Headmisstress and Deputy Headmaster, Harry stood to the side of the Head Table, smiling sweetly at the jittering first years looking at him awed; he sighed inwardly.  
"Hello and Welcome to Hogwarts; First Years and returning students. This year we have added an extra Year for those that had missed their Seventh Year due to the unfortune War. Thankfully we can all live our lives without the threat of Voldemort hanging over our heads, due the enormous effort of Harry Potter." They all clapped and cheered, the First Years stood up.  
"Now we'll be sorting the First Years and...Harry Potter." McGonagall trailed off at his name.  
The sorting lasted longer than previous years; many more 11 year old jittery children. Harry stood quitely and watched, waving to one of them as they continued to stare at him from under the brim of the Sorting Hat. He could see the terrified look, the closing of his eyes and slumping of his shoulders as he was sorted into Slytherin. Walking to the table with his head bent, Harry stopped him quickly before he completely reached it.  
"Hey, relax. Slytherin isn't a bad house, it just doesn't have the most lovely reputation. Don't let it or the people around you get you down. Okay? I'll be right here if you want to talk about it, same with him over there; see the blonde?" The small boy nodded slowly. "His name is Draco Malfoy and he's not a bad person no matter what other people say." The boy hesitantly nodded again and clenched his hand a second before walking with his head held high to sit right beside Draco.  
Harry smiled at them, Draco nodded; a hand on the boy's shoulder.  
"Harry Potter?"  
Blinking he moved swiftly up onto the platform and sat on the stool, taking the Hat from Snape's potion stained hands and placing it delicately on his head; the brim just covering his eyes from view.  
"Ah Harry Potter back again I see; do you wish to go to your rightful place in Slytherin House?" Harry nodded under the wide brim and muttered, "Yes of course. I've come to realise where I should of been, but I see now that being in Gryffindor was still good for me." The hat moved in a nodding type motion around his head. Muttering about the distracting gasps and whispers of the students surrounding them.  
"Very well then...SLYTHERIN!!!" Harry smirked, thanked the Hat and handed it back to the stunned Potions Professor; he numbly took it. Standing he walked with his head held high and a hint of the smirk remaining on his lips all the way down the stairs and to his new house for the year.  
"Potter. Welcome to Slytherin House." You could just hear the smirking amusement as he spoke.  
"Pleasures all mine Draco." He sat down then right beside him, humming in amusement as there were several people shouting all at once and bodies dropping to the floor like flies.  
There was an awkward cough from behind him and he turned half around with a raised eyebrow, "Professor?"  
Another cough, "Welcome to Slytherin House Potter. I hope you come to regret your decision." He strode off, but not before Harry's words penetrated his brain. "Oh don't worry Sir. I won't. I was supposed to be a Slytherin before, and I will be a proper one now."  
Snape ground his teeth together as he started walking again; having stopped abruptly at the spoken words.  
"Oh that reminds me, I still need to ask my own question to Professor McGonagall." His hand froze over the plate containing bread rolls as he spoke.  
"And what would that be?"  
"Mm. I'll ask her later..." Draco looked at him amusedly when he continued to muse about it and ignore his question entirely.  
It was a minute later before Harry's head turned in his direction, "Oh, sorry. Did you say something Draco?"  
"Hah." Draco shook his head with an amused smirk, "Not at all."  
"Oh." He shrugged and went back to thinking and distractedly eating breadrolls.


End file.
